Home automation systems provide convenience and safety by allowing remote control of electrical appliances and electronic devices within the home. Currently available home automation systems centrally control switches or actuators that are coupled to the various appliances and devices located throughout the home. The switches can be activated by conventional infrared manual remote controls which operate locally, by computer interfaces which further provide for scheduled or timed activation, and by touch tone (DTMF) controllers which activate switches in response to receipt of touch tone signals received over a telephone network. Thus, a home automation system may currently be remotely controlled by establishing an Internet connection and communicating commands to a home computer that is interfaced to the various appliance and device switches, or by establishing a telephone connection with a touch tone controller and entering the various commands by touch tone on a telephone.
Internet connections from a user's location are not always convenient or available and use of touch tone commands is cumbersome because the user is required to memorize all of the relevant command codes relating to the various switches in the home, and the various commands executable by each switch.
Accordingly, it would be useful to provide a home automation system that is convenient but does not require the user to memorize command details.